Mass-Banning

I know some people who got away with it though, and still have the duped armbraces on their account..I hope Anet can find these people and can their asses.

What "mass banning" are you describing? The numbers being mentioned in this thread are in the single digits. There has been no mass ban. Period.

Here is what we've done:

• We've found the people who duplicated items. Their numbers were really quite small. We banned them.
• We found the people to whom the duplicated items were given in large quantities. Their numbers were somewhat larger, but again, relatively few. We banned them.
• We are examining records to see how far this extends. We may be banning more in the coming days, but we will most likely choose to not ban more than we will choose to ban. The decision is ours and will be based on a lot of factors, principal being whether it's reasonable to assume that the player knew he/she was getting ill-gotten goods.

We are quite sure that those players getting stacks and stacks of the most valuable item in the game realized that this largesse was not the result of the kind and generous spirit of a guild mate or friend. We're quite sure that those getting offers of 5 gazillion armbraces for item sales knew that something was wrong, and yet they made the sale anyway. It's obvious that certain players knew about the exploit, or suspected there was one. It's pretty easy to establish who such players were.

Did you think we'd never notice? Of course we noticed! Our recordkeeping is exceptionally detailed. You can't move a piece of gold from one bag to another without us knowing it. And as a result, those at the center of abusing this exploit were banned. That is as it should be.

The issue of someone selling a single ambrace to another innocent person, later on, is more complicated. The item was duped, but the buyer may not have been -- probably was not -- aware that he/she was buying a duped item. So, it's a matter of degree, intention, and knowledge. Do we ban the seller, with multiple stacks of 250 armbraces in inventory (or who handed off stacks to friends and guildies)? Yes! Do we ban the player who makes the one-off purchase -- an armbrace here, a couple of duped ectos there? It's not likely that we will.

Duplicating items is disallowed by the User Agreement under which each player is permitted to play Guild Wars. Getting stacks and stacks of free items -- or receiving ridiculous numbers of items for a sale -- must have pinged peoples' radars that "Hey, this can't be legit!" Just as receiving stolen property is a crime in the real world, this sort of act is disallowed in our game, and results in a ban.

Those who made an innocent purchase have very little to worry about. The accounts of those who were banned were examined with care and consideration, using extensive research to assure that the appropriate action was taken. It is highly unlikely that these players can successfully appeal their banning.

And if you're aware of someone who was involved, I invite you to report that player, for the good of the game.

yeah right, dupers looking for simphaty, gfto

Hey Gaile... hopefully you come back and take a look in this thread.

Is there any word on whats happening to Armbraces or the duped Armbraces? Left alone? Deleted? Etc...

Nice to know that these things can be so easily traced. Things should return to pretty much normal soon.
Thanks for the info Gaile.

And that my friends, should about cover it.

I will say this is the wackiest thing I have seen happen in this game in 2 years of playing, and frankly, I think they are handling it just fine.

Thank you Gaile

There is an old saying "If its too good to be true it probably is." Although I'm a bit sad that some people will "get away with it". Have you considered exchanging the "Armbraces of Truth" with "Shackles of Humility"?

I saw this guy with 4.9 bajillion armbraces... it's not as bad as the guy with 6.24 quantillion armbraces, but they definitely can't plead ignorance.

Could some Mod grab the Gaile quote and put it at the start of a stickied thread? That really answers a lot of questions I had. Seems fair and puts the silly "everyone who disconnected the that past week is gonna get banned" rumors to rest.

Have I, personally, considered that? Yes.

I don't know that any item changes will be made; I rather suspect not. The content programming team feels that this was nipped in the bud quite thoroughly, and while research continues and more bans may be put in place, we're not going to obsess about tracking down every last armbrace and banning the person in whose inventory is lies.

Be smart, people! It's not worth risking your freedom for a stolen TV. It's not worth risking your account for a duped in-game item, no matter how sparkly they are!

Dont forget the guy with 10 fofillion armbraces

So entire guilds of people are single digits ey?

For the greater good. If they are duping items they deserve a ban, plain and simple. We were all warned in the EULA what is and is not allowed in the GuildWars online gameplay. Those who do not comply should be punished, just as if they ignored clearly stated laws.

I have the fix. Stop making things so sparkly!

This is the best way they could have handled this.

Ban the duping idiots trading billions in gold and leave the rest of us in peace. No rollbacks, no fuss, no muss. Maybe now prices can come down and ecto can stabilize a bit.

Bullshit.

If that's true, then why are so many members in my guild banned?

Well there's the problem, isn't it? How we do we know whether an item is duped or not? I guess abstaining from purchasing armbraces for the time being would be wise, but since the exploit isn't unique to armbraces there's no real way to know what you're buying.



BTW: I think you guys handled it rather well, great job.

Actually, I found it hilarious how quickly MistsEle and Chubby Monkey shut up as soon as Max posted that screenshot in this thread.

Max, you're my new hero.

Really, Miss Gray?

I would buy this except for a couple of things

1: You are exaggerating - the game does not go to 5 gazillion in anything

2: ANet repeatedly has assured players in the past that duping items was impossible because the information was all server side (thus assuaging some of the suspicion that would normally arise in the player's mind when being offered multiple armbraces)

3: ANet recently made DoA easier to access (and advertised this quite efficiently) leading to the reasonable assumption that armbraces and gemsets would fall in price quite rapidly.

4: I had no real idea myself how much an armbrace was worth in this game until this issue - many other players surely are in the same boat. Had I been offered one for 50k or even as a gift I would have known I was getting a good deal but I never would have realized how much of a good deal. If I had a rare mini and was offered a 1000 armbraces for it, I probably would not have realized the discrepancy. I collect certain things and know the price for them but anything else would simply leave me in the dark.

5: Posts about being offered many armbraces for rare minis were started some time ago from what I understand and ANet did nothing. If you read the first few posts that alerted the community this week you will notice that many refused to believe there was a problem - ANet's lack of action lulled them into thinking everything was surely ok and other factors were responsible for the number of armbraces.

6: And finally - let's face it, this exploit has been around since December - and now that we look back was probably greatly responsible for the sharp drop in ecto prices. Yet NO ONE suspected anything other than deflation caused by hard mode and loot scaling. Why do you, then, expect people to see armbraces differently?

Yes, many are to blame - some may have suspected there was a problem - but given that ANet was responsible for a huge part of the problem I think you need to err strongly on the side of caution before claiming any person should have known there was a problem.

They are no more to blame than ANet - because ANet SHOULD HAVE SUSPECTED THERE WAS A PROBLEM LONG AGO!!!

Please do not say what others should have suspected when you must be painted with the same brush.

Give me a precise number. Better still, PM me the IGNs and I'll look up each and every one.

A guild can consist of a single individual. Guilds often number in the single digits. Let me have the facts on yours and I'll look up the whole thing. Not because I think you'll be able to appeal, but because I want you to be 100% certain that we were very careful, very conservative and entirely fair.